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Gardening fun
During the winter, I didn’t mow all that much. I mainly did the area right behind the house because we have been working on preparing to do the paving on the patio. With all the rain of late, that had gotten quite high in a very short time. This isn’t too unusual in winter though. The side of the house was far worse because that hadn’t been mowed for even longer. The grass doesn’t actually give proper coverage to any area in the backyard so mowing ended up being a hit and miss activity and a lot of sand joins the cut grass.
On Tuesday, we had an unseasonably warm day so I got outside to get some mowing done while it was reasonably dry. First I had to clean up messes from the dogs. This time their messes were mostly at the back, which is pretty unusual for them. Once I thought I had it clear, I started mowing, finding more stuff to clean up along the way. There are several large plastic pots out there that had really tall grass growing around it. I don’t always move them around but decided that grass had to go. So there was a lot of shifting things around while mowing. And pulling lots of clumps of grass by hand when it was too hard for the mower. I mustn’t forget all the large, prickly plants that are weeds though. They seemed to grow within a short time and some of them were quite large. Gloves are required for their removal and now I need another pair of gloves because holes have emerged in my current pair.
When the Scientist finished work, he came out and helped out with what I was doing and did some other required tasks out there. It took about three hours to get all the mowing done if I include all the down time to clear out grass from areas it wasn’t supposed to be growing. There’s a grevillea bush outside the side door that had become almost choked by the grass. Well, it wasn’t really choked because it seems to grow no matter what.
The whole back yard area is looking so much bigger and tidier now. We still have the bricks to pave on the patio but we should be organising that in the next few weeks.
It’s become quite obvious that we’ve made quite a few mistakes in our planting out back. We have way too many shrubs that have grown too big. We chose plants that grow up to three meters and really should have limited them to ones that are two meters. The bottlebrush trees are okay because they are more like trees than shrubs and can easily be trimmed so the base is clear of a lot of branches. But there are three that have overgrown really badly and we probably should just take them out sooner than later. One is covering Lego Lover’s window and blocks a lot of sun, but it’s leaning far in one direction and I can imagine it suddenly tipping over some time should we end up with too much rain or it just gets too top heavy. That grevillea that seemed choked with grass is like wildfire, spreading in all directions every time it gets cut back. It looks nice but it becomes a monster unless trimmed quite regularly. There is also the tea tree that took away a huge corner of the side garden. It’s been cut back to the base, more or less but there’s more to remove. We don’t really have tools to carry out the last part of this so it will likely need a professional to remove it. Plus there’s the one bottlebrush out in the back that has grown in too many directions and part of the trunk split at some point and we have doubts as to whether it will survive long term. More importantly now, there’s concern about it falling on the patio roof at some point should it become too unstable at the base. It’s going to leave a huge gaps and the sun will be far more intense there.
We now are considering what we might like to plant out there when the space is cleared. We’ve ideas of growing some dwarf fruit trees. Lime is one of the most likely options and if we could find an avocado tree in dwarf form, I think we might go for that.
There is also a proper hibiscus that has started to flourish out there. But I can see it growing into the corner of the patio so that needs to be shifted, but hopefully just a little way off from where it is. And there’s a solanum plant that is also right on the edge of the patio which needs to be moved. I don’t know where we will put that yet. Plus the two shrubs growing under the patio, of course. I’m pretty sure we will move those to the front yard.
Wednesday was supposed to be hotter than Tuesday and I had ideas of trying to get the front yard mowed. But the dogs had a grooming appointment and it was really hot and the winds were blowing hot air around. It wasn’t ideal for mowing at all. Later on it would have been more feasible because the winds shifted direction and the air was cooler. But it was still windy. But I had to be out to take my care-ee out for his aqua aerobics class in the evening so it wasn’t possible to start so late in the day.
The rain returned yesterday and seems set to be here at least through tomorrow. So further mowing is out of the question until it dries enough for me to feel safe using our electric mower. It’s still windy too.
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Auckland Day 6
I slept really well on the Thursday night and didn’t rush to get up this morning since I felt I deserved the extra rest. I did get up, though, since today was the main point of the whole trip: Finns at the Zoo concert.
I don’t recall much of the first part of the day except I got up and showered and dressed and went out. My feet were kind of sore but once I got going it was okay. I wandered up and down some of the main streets in Auckland, passing the time until it was time to catch a bus to the zoo.
This is the day I got rained on properly for the first time that week I’d thought I might have to buy an umbrella early in the week because the forecast was for rain most days. This was the first time I kind of thought I might have to finally do that. But I didn’t. It bucketed down a few times in the late morning and/or early afternoon. It’s a lot different seeing people huddle under cover throughout the city instead of casually walking around everywhere. The sidewalks became quite crowded at times as people tried to move around. I found the rain was much like it is here in Perth, though, because it would bucket down for a few minutes and then drizzle or stop for a while.
The zoo concert was outdoors and the rains picked a terrible time to arrive. I was prepared to be dealing with wet ground and decided I would get some sort of rain poncho later if it might be necessary. So there was the wait through the day to see if it would clear. And it did clear up at times but then would rain again so there was no certainty at all. At least it wasn’t cold weather. I’m thinking about that now because it’s currently quite chilly here and I have socks and slippers on but have cold feet. :)
I ate a late-ish lunch at a sort of fusion Asian place. I was some variation on a noodles and egg, I think. I had tried to get this earlier in the week but apparently it wasn’t available so I got something else. Anyway, I sat and ate a very leisurely lunch while watching people pass by the small shop in the now muggy afternoon weather.
I didn’t have anything much planned for the afternoon so decided to catch the innerlink bus around the CBD to see where it goes. This didn’t go to plan the first time I caught it. Most of the buses just carry on travelling in a circle but eventually the drivers do change and this one dropped all of us off on a street I’d not seen before. I ended up walking along until I found another bus and caught that one and was able to just sit and relax. This was truly the most relaxing of days during my trip because I had no plans of doing anything much until evening and I wanted to save my feet for standing at the concert. They were still sore but bearable at this point, which was encouraging for the evening. The round trip on this bus didn’t cover as much of an area as I would have liked but it was still useful to have it available even if to just make a walking trip a bit shorter.
After going around once I got off and browsed around some souvenir shops in town and then popped into the library for a little while. There main branch has two levels and the even has an escalator between floors, which surprised me a lot. I also need to make use of the toilets there and found they were kind of high tech too. At the sink there was a machine that did the soap and then the water flowed and then it dried your hands, all at the same basin. It was pretty crowded there that afternoon, perhaps from visitors seeking shelter from the elements. By this time the rains had pretty much stopped altogether and they had been more drizzle for quite a while. So there was a chance the concert might not be disturbed by the rain gods after all. I think I’ve been rather lucky to have never been stuck in the rain at a concert before. The closest I came was when I went to see Neil Finn and Paul Kelly early last year and it had been very much a dark and stormy day throughout. But somehow the rain let up just a little while before the show and all was well throughout.
I think the gates for the show opened at 5pm so I looked to find the bus I needed around 3pm or so. I had gone straight to the Britomart Transport Centre to hopefully make it easier for myself. I think it worked out pretty well because the bus was pretty full by the time I passed by some of the locations I’d travelled earlier in the day. Soon we were out of the cbd area and into a suburb that I didn’t know at all. I remember passing by some sort of museum along the way and then I remember the signs about the Queensland fruit fly. I had seen notices about this in grocery stores and a few other places through the week but this was the first area directly affected. They had been found in the area and there were regulations in place that forbade removing certain foods from being taken out of that area to prevent the spread of the infestation.
It really didn’t take all that long before we arrived at the destination. Actually it was just me that disembarked and it seems I must have gone a stop too far because I had to backtrack slightly to reach the road where the zoo was located. The hardest part was getting across the main road and once across it was quite an easy walk, accomplished in about ten minutes at most. The entrance to the zoo was really pretty and I did take a few photos beforehand. The tickets did include entrance to the zoo but if I wanted to get a decent spot, I wanted to go straight to the venue and stick around. There was already a line of people waiting to get in for the show. I didn’t know anybody, of course, so I just got in line and sat down. It wasn’t moving and would be moving for at least half an hour.
There was another lady just behind me who struck up a conversation. She’d flown over from Canberra and was part of the same fan forum where I had spent a bit of time. We had a good chat while we waited and she regaled me with stories from other shows she’d seen. There are quite a few members of this forum that have done a fair bit of travel for the shows and it seems this one of those people.
The line finally started to show signs of getting ready to move so we gathered up belongings and we went straight to the front when we arrived. The venue was divided in front of the gazebo where the band was to play. The left side was for people in chairs and the right side was for people who were standing or sitting on the ground. We went to the right side and were just behind the lines marked out by the footpath there. Sitting there was pretty fine for me since I wanted to save my feet for later in the evening. Meanwhile the other lady was up and about quite a bit and chatting with other people she knew from the forum.
I think the show was due to start with the support act at 6pm and I just stayed put and the other lady did eventually return although a bit after the support act had begun playing. I liked the singer but I admit he didn’t exactly wow me on this occasion. I think he played for about half an hour to forty-five minutes before leaving the stage to be readied for the main attraction. During the break my companion flitted about even more but returned well in advance of the main program. I Skyped to the Scientist while I was sitting there and I eventually went up and bought a drink but otherwise stayed where I was.
Finally the band ran up to the stage from behind the gazebo (where more people were sitting) and got ready to play. We tried to stay seated on the ground but then other people started to stand in front of us. I always feel like I play by the “rules” but it always backfires because others don’t and make it harder. As the songs continued I was seeing less and less so we both moved over towards the front steps to the gazebo. The other lady was trying to record song after song with her tablet. She ended up sitting right up close and I squatted a bit behind her. My feet were hurting quite a bit from squatting but I stayed for a while and then moved back. Eventually she moved to the other side and I took her place and sat there most of the rest of the evening. It worked out really well because, aside from young kids getting in the way, it was a great seat. And the kids weren’t much of a problem either. The lady doing the recording had gotten rather narky about them earlier which I thought was uncalled for.
It was a great show by the whole Finn family. They sang sang a number of songs from each of the main performers and later in the evening, they brought out Tim Finn’s daughter, who I think is nine or ten or thereabouts to sing. She was great and really got into it. Tim’s son had been playing as part of the band all through the evening. I think he is about fifteen or so. Neil Finn’s younger son played drums, guitar and whatever was needed during the show. And his wife joined them on bass at one point. It was a bit like being allowed to peek in when they were doing a family jam at home. It was really special throughout and I got a lot of great photos. Most importantly my feet survived the night quite well.
As this was a zoo venue, the curfew was much earlier than at other shows so it was all done and dusted by 9pm. Which was really not that long after dark. I hung around with my new acquaintance for a little while but then we parted company as she had different plans to mine. It was particularly dark on the way out of the zoo. I guess they only use the most minimal lighting since they are not designed for night attendance.
There was a steady stream of people walking from the zoo towards the main road and I followed along and stopped at the bus stop. It wasn’t too long before the bus arrived and I was on board for a pretty quick ride to the CBD. It surely only took about a third of the time of the trip there. Once I got to the Britomart Centre, I got off and wandered around the city in the night for a bit. Actually it wasn’t that much wandering that I did. I followed along the wharf area, which looked pretty cool at this hour with little lanterns on the tops of several posts along the way. It was a pleasant evening and I took my time going back towards the hotel.
I stopped at the Countdown Supermarket and got a couple things to eat before heading back to the hotel. For the first time since I arrived, I wasn’t ready to drop when I got back. I had a snack and went to the room and was feeling very chatty with one of the roommates. I hadn’t noticed the bunkmate above me was sleeping at the time. :( It was surprising she was in at all, being a Friday night. Anyway, I was awake until much later and spent that time reflecting on the night I’d had and feeling really good. I did eventually fall off to sleep though, with no clear idea of what I was going to do on Saturday. I had ideas of going to one of the nearby islands, a popular one that had been highly recommended. But I also had an idea of trying to get back to Mount Eden in some way, just because I had liked it so much. I think it must have been about half past 12 before I slept and I had a good night, despite a very noisy hotel with all the young people in full party mode.
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Warmth
I walked outside to put something in the recycling bin and I felt warmth. It was a nice change from the last week or so when there’s been a chill almost every day. We’re going to have a blast of warmth until later this week with temperatures rising to about 30C, which pretty warm for this time of year.
My sore throat has improved. It seemed almost gone over the weekend but I had a mild relapse where it flared up again. I’m still coughing off and on but it’s not been too bad. The only time it’s really troublesome is while I’m sleeping, which has happened a few times now. Game Fanatic is no better than before. Just waiting for some reprieve for him.
The grass in the yard is looking awfully long right now so I really want to get out and do some mowing soon. I think it might be still a bit damp to use our electric mower though. Tomorrow or Wednesday will surely be better after there’s dryness and warmth to dry out the areas in shade. I think that’s one of my priorities during the week before we end up with trouble with moths again.
The bottlebrushes are starting to bloom and the tree limbs are getting weighed down by all the flowers. The native hibiscus (purple) is still blooming but nothing has changed on any of the others. (I have taken a few photos which I will post in the next day or so once I remove them from my camera. )
I finished reading Salem’s Lot late last night. It’s interesting that I found it a lot scarier much earlier in the book while it was building up the horror of the situation. Later on I was much more at ease and just read the book. In this case, I’ve never seen the film adaptation of the book. I have this vague recollection of it being a tv mini-series rather than a film but can’t be bothered to check it out. I still have a copy of The Shining to watch but haven’t taken the time for it. I think this might be due to Game Fanatic’s interest in seeing it. I think it may be difficult to pin him down to watch it because he’s not always in the mood for watching a movie. And it’s a long movie so he needs to dedicate the time.
My next book is The Mermaid Chair by Sue Kidd Monk, who wrote The Secret Life of Bees. I haven’t read the other book and the library didn’t have a copy available, so I decided to give this one a try. It’s probably going to be quite a change after reading a few Stephen King books.
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Cough, cough, cough
Game Fanatic is still coughing badly. I took him to see a doctor for the third time this morning. The appointment started out as mine because my sore throat didn’t seem to be improving after over a week or so. It now seems to be improving and swallowing isn’t as uncomfortable as it was. I didn’t know this for sure when I changed it online last night but I must be getting better. I still have my own cough happening but it’s early days and post-viral coughs do sometimes go on for ages. This is especially true this year.
I didn’t think a 10am appointment would be an issue for Game Fanatic but I had to almost drag him from bed to the doctor. He did get up but it was slow going for quite a while. The doctor is the same one I’ve seen the last few times and she was pretty thorough at checking him out. One of his ears is pretty red and blocked and she couldn’t see the other eardrum due to wax. It’s hard to tell about his lungs because he didn’t breathe in deeply enough for her to hear properly. I think he was worried it would start off a coughing fit. He probably wasn’t wrong. I suspect his lungs were okay since that was the case the first time he was in to see a doctor. So we have a script for another antibiotic but she thinks (and I agree) that it’s most likely viral and will be useless. But it’s there should he get worse and need it. I assume that’s more about the ear than the cough since the cough is already pretty awful. Also, he’s supposed to take Vitamin D supplements as his was low when tested earlier in the year. I don’t recall mention of this before but maybe I have forgotten…that does seem to happen to me sometimes these days. Sigh. Ideally more sun would be most beneficial.
I happened to mention my cough which started from a sore throat and she said that the coughs she’s been seeing haven’t been connected with sore throats this year. I guess I get to be different. :D
Lego Lover seems to have missed out on any cough or cold this year. At least that’s the case so far. He seems to have gotten the breathing difficulties out of the way earlier in life and hasn’t had any asthma issues in years. In fact, that boy has been pretty healthy for several years despite his poor diet and exercise.
Funny that the first of the month is considered the first day of spring here and it’s been pretty chilly. Tuesday night the temperature dipped almost to freezing in the night and the day time temperatures didn’t get that high either. This is all after a somewhat mild winder overall. We’ve had quite a bit of rain lately so I imagine the spring allergies are going to be loads of fun this season.
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Late winter fun
I took Game Fanatic to the doctor on Wednesday. He’s now on a codeine filled cough syrup, which to date hasn’t accomplished anything. He’s to continue the asthma medication and the nasal spray along with the cough syrup. He sounds worse than ever today so I presume we will be back at the doctor next week again. Possibly to trial some reflux medication. Poor guy already takes several medications for mental health issues and now he’s got all this on top of that. :(
Meanwhile I still have my sore throat and it makes swallowing a bit uncomfortable. I have found that Game Fanatic’s delicious guacamole goes down wonderfully but the avocadoes have run out so that will have to be delayed. With any luck I will be better by the time we replenish our supply.
My work stint only game me four days of work. I went in on Tuesday despite my sore throat and got through the whole day. I felt pretty sure the part of the project we started would surely be finished by yesterday and I was proven to be correct when my supervisor called Wednesday afternoon to tell me I would need to come in again. I had debated as to whether to go in on Tuesday, partly due to the chance of spreading my germs around. Curiously nobody seemed bother I had come in anyway and seemed surprised I had debated at all.
Apparently I was having some interesting dreams in the night because the Scientist said I was shouting out loudly enough to worry the dogs during the night. I can’t recall the dreams but did wake up to use the toilet once and wasn’t keen to head back into whatever story my brain was trying to tell at the time.
I didn’t mention this in my last post but I have started to read Stephen King recently. It all started when Amazon had a recent book on their daily deal and I thought it would be worthy of a dollar to give it a read. It’s called Joyland and is one of a series of sort of detective stories, hard case crime, I think. It was really a thriller in the end and I quite liked it. So I decided I would give another of his books a try and chose The Shining. I already know the main story, having watched the film many years ago. I’m not too sure why I watched it since it isn’t really in a genre of movies I that generally enjoy. I got through the book within a few days and really enjoyed it and strangely wasn’t totally scared from it despite finishing it late at night. I borrowed the dvd of the film from the library and plan to watch it again soon to see how it compares to the book. I remember being more scared from the movie though. I am now reading Salem’s Lot and so far it’s been pretty benign but it’s early chapters right now. I have known King’s work is not all horror but I have just never felt inclined to read any of his stories until now. My younger brother and my grandma (who died a few years ago) would be pleased to know I have taken the plunge into his work.
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Odds and ends
I still haven’t finished the next post on my Auckland trip but it will happen soon, I hope. It’s so close to being finished but I just haven’t done it yet.
I have a gp care plan again after waiting over month for the other one to run out. I don’t even know if I ever used the last one either. Sigh…What this means is I can go see the podiatrist and have my costs covered by Medicare instead of out-of-pocket. I also had visits for an exercise physiologist included. It covers five visits altogether so I will probably use one or two for the podiatrist and then the rest on the exercise physiologist. I do have insurance that covers podiatry (partly) so I still won’t have to pay totally out-of-pocket.
I had some more blood tests this week, one of which was to check my iron levels. My iron stores are still low but slightly improved. I guess I will be taking iron a bit longer. My iron level is fine although it’s very much on the lower end and hadn’t changed since my last test.
Although it’s been reasonably mild overall this winter, it has been chilly for much of the past few weeks. That was until a week ago when we had a preview of spring for a weekend.  Over the last week, there’s been quite a bit of rain too. The bees are out and there are lots of flowers blooming. Sometimes it seems like all the flowers are yellow but there are some pink and fuchsia ones around too. Soon there will be many more colors. Our native hibiscus is blooming some beautiful purple flowers and the white one looks likely to bloom soon. That’s one currently below the patio roof that needs to be moved. I want to wait until it finishes flowering before moving it. I imagine that will work out with our current plan of paving next month or October.
Game Fanatic has been coughing for about six weeks. Last weekend I took him to see a doctor. He seemed to be okay in the lungs and throat, etc. so the doctor prescribed an asthma medication that has a reliever and a preventer in it. I was rather doubtful on the asthma front since Ventolin didn’t seem to make any difference but he tried it. After several days we had a prescription for antibiotics which he’s now on. His cough has been even worse since then. I don’t necessarily think it’s due to the medication but whatever ails him is not improving. I am going to see if I can get him in to his regular doctor in the next few days to see where we go from here. I wonder now if reflux could be the problem as that turned out to be at least part cause of a cough I had years ago that persisted for months, And there’s also a mycoplasma infection which I had when I was 22 that persisted for about two months, which I suppose is also possible.
I’m in the middle of a brief work stint of about two weeks with the local university. This is the same project I’ve done over the past five years, so I am quite familiar with it. It’s much shorter this year because the testing that’s being done is now online for one of the age groups. Next year it will be totally online so this will be the last time I work on the project. For the client doing the testing, this surely will save massive amounts of money on all the hours of work going into processing test booklet so it’s a good thing for them.
A couple weeks ago, our family finished playing a game called Danganrompa together, using the PlayStation TV. Game Fanatic had played the game already on his PS Vita but wanted to share. He went to the extra expense of buying the NTSC version from the US so he could do this on the tv with us. Actually, I think he got the PlayStation TV for this purpose too. It turns out to be have been a good risk to take because we really got into the game and ended up completing it more quickly than we originally planned. The game is a Japanese case solving mystery involving murders. It’s a pretty perverse premise but it still drew us in enough to do a marathon session to reach the end and find out all. There’s a sequel that GF has also completed that we are likely to start next weekend. This one will already work with the PlayStation TV so no extra expense has been required.
I seem to have acquired a sore throat in the past couple of days. The guy I take out as a carer on Wednesday evenings was sick last week so I assume I got it from him. He seems to have recovered quickly from it so I am hoping this will be mild for me too since I have three workdays ahead of me.
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The mystery solved
I never posted a follow up to my previous post about Centrelink. I was told by the person I spoke to at Centrelink there would be someone contacting me by phone within three business days. Of course this didn’t happen and I called them two weeks later to find out what was happening. I don’t actually know whether there was any follow up before my call. Anyway, I had to wait over ten minutes to get through to a person and then I explained the whole situation again. This person then transferred me to someone in a different department. The wait for that person was even longer, probably fifteen minutes or more. When the next person came on the line, she started asking me to repeat everything again and I was already fed up. I queried whether she had actually looked at my account or not. To be honest I am surprised I didn’t have to provide account details again. She replied that she was waiting for information to come up. My thought was that she could have at least mentioned that instead of expecting me just follow along.
This woman did figure out what the problem was after putting me on hold a few times. She did apologise for that and she was extremely helpful from that point. It seems that when we went to Canada fourteen years ago, Game Fanatic was coded as having left Australia permanently. This didn’t happen to any of the rest of us but just GF. This may explain why it took three goes or more to get our family payments restarted when we got back. But it doesn’t explain why this didn’t get caught for thirteen years or more. Sigh.. The rep then spent a long time trying to fix the problem but her computer was giving her a lot of issues. Eventually she promised to get it resolved by the next day and phone back. Famous last words from customer service…but I did get a call the next day and it was resolved. I even got a letter confirming we didn’t owe any money about a week or so later.
It still boggles my mind this was sitting there all these years and it took some little niggle from a tax office notice to flag it.
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The trouble with Centrelink…
Firstly I should explain that Centrelink is an Australian government agency that deals with various payments to people, from pension to disability to unemployment. We’ve been receiving a few payments from them over the years for family tax benefits. We normally receive this fortnightly as opposed to a lump sum at the end of the financial year. This isn’t the only payment but the only one in question at the moment.
Back in 2001 we temporarily moved overseas, starting just after the beginning of the financial year in July. We returned the following June, just before the end of the financial year. Once we were gone for six months, those payments stopped. After three attempts to go into Centrelink, I did finally get them restarted upon our return. Not quite sure why it took three goes to get it done but it was backdated to our return date. After that, I thought it was all sorted out and we wouldn’t hear about it again.
I got a letter from Centrelink late last week saying they had overpaid us and we have to repay just under $500 before the middle of next month. The only explanation was that they had reviewed our income and personal circumstances and discovered this. I stewed about this over the weekend, tried to call this morning to sort it out, then went in when the phone line was constantly busy. I finally got called up and the woman asked me the problem. I asked her to look at the letter and explain. She laughed and said it didn’t matter how many years it was, Centrelink would collect attempt to collect a debt even after 100 years. I must admit that this didn’t make me laugh.
After several minutes looking through the files and reviewing our case, she couldn’t work out a reason why our benefit would change. She said she was referring it to some other department who would contact me by phone within the next three working days.
Now it’s rather interesting that the ATO is connected because I had to suddenly fill out forms on the ATO website saying I wasn’t required to file taxes for several of the years between 2000 and 2011. The only year that didn’t require this was 2005. I have no idea how that wasn’t needed. I have no idea why I had to file these forms at all, in fact. Except perhaps for the 2011 year when I did work but didn’t have tax withheld and earned an amount well under the taxable threshold. It just happens that I completed all these forms online, Â about a day before this letter was generated, and it did include the year in question. As to why this would have affected our family tax benefit, I couldn’t say. The family income did not change in any way.
My theory is the Centrelink letter was triggered in some way by this updated information and that is surely is a mistake because there has been no change to the income reported in this family in all these years. I am curious to see if they really do follow up within the time frame required too.
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Photos!
I surprised myself and got through a huge number of photos this week. Although I uploaded Auckland Day 4 photos a while ago, I hadn’t completed details and made them public until yesterday. The Auckland Day 5 photos were uploaded a couple days ago and I think I have most of the detail I wanted. I figure I can always go back and add more information later.
Even better, I have mostly completed writing up day 6 so should have that posted within a day or two. After all this time, it almost makes me feel like I am getting ahead of myself. But really it might spur me on to write up days 7 and 8 to finish this up. Still have heaps of photos to get through but starting to get on the latter part of it.
Anyway, to find Auckland Day 4, look here.
To find Auckland Day 5, look here.
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Veggie stew
I started a vegetable stew in the slow cooker today and will see how it comes out tomorrow. I didn’t use a proper recipe and just threw a bunch of stuff into the pot before starting. I think I didn’t add enough water, which may be a bit of a throwback to making stew in the pressure cooker so many times. I have remedied the liquid now so hopefully this will make the cooking process a bit better. It probably isn’t ideal blindly throwing stuff together but I am sure it will come out fine in the end.
I’m not quite sure it’s cold enough for stew right now but it has cooled off just a bit from what it was a couple days ago. Tonight is certainly chillier than last night but still not really cold.
Meanwhile, I am still working on day five of my holiday. I ended up going ahead and doing all the photos for the previous day. They are now uploaded but I still have some details to add to them before releasing them to the public. I also just discovered I had a $5 note from New Zealand still hidden in my wallet from my trip. I thought I’d cleared that out long ago but had gone looking for some cash a couple days ago and found that instead. Not that it is much use now. I will add it to my mug holding bits and pieces of foreign cash. I have US, Canadian and New Zealand dollars plus various change in there, waiting to be used next time I travel to whichever place.